SINGLE PAYER HEALTH INSURANCE

THE ONLY COST EFFECTIVE OPTION FOR KEEPING AMERICA HEALTHY

(According to the Congressional Budget Office, 30 million non elderly citizens will still not be insured by 2022, CBO Table 3)

RESULTS OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

AND WHY MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

What is America's current solution for providing its people with health care? The Affordable Care Act.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was enacted in 2010 by President Barack Obama. It represents the most significant overhaul in health care since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Under the ACA, hospitals and primary physicians have been required to transform their practices financially, technologically and clinically to drive better outcomes, lower costs, and improve their methods of distribution and accessibility. The intention of the passage of the ACA was to increase health insurance quality and affordability, while lowering the rate of the uninsured. However, the AFA is not a
comprehensive solution. Rather than placing health insurance in the
hands of one payer — the government —ACA is a federal mandate
making it illegal not to buy health insurance from the private health
insurance industries.

What have been the results? Indeed more people did get access to health care. Dropping the rate of uninsured from 48 million in 2009, to around 34 million in 2014 [1][2]. As of 2014, 11.7% of Americans lack coverage, compared to the near 20% who lacked coverage at the height of the recession, in 2010. [3]

So is this an improvement? Yes it is. But the fact remains that some 30 millions still lack health care. So this is not a comprehensive solution.

Much more needs to be done. What America needs is the solution that most developed countries in the world already have. A single payer health care system. A system that can get the number of uncovered individuals down to zero.

MOST OF THE WORLD ALREADY HAS UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

AMERICA LAGS BEHIND

WHY SINGLE PAYER?

Imagine what life would be like if you had to pay "fire insurance"
in order for firefighters to come to your house, only to be denied
because of your income level or some other preexisting condition (sorry,
your neighborhood was too flammable). How confusing would life be if
you had to navigate through a patchwork of different companies and a
labyrinth of paperwork before you could even have the privilege of
finding a fire rescue company that met your legal criteria? Fortunately,
there is one source that pays for the firefighters, police officers,
mail systems, road workers and teachers in this country. That one payer
is
the government. Unfortunately, the health industry does not
work in the same way. What we need is single payer health care system: a
system in which the government pays for all health care costs, rather
than private insurers.
In a single payer system, everyone is already in the system, so we
don't need a mountain of paperwork and overhead costs to keep track of
who is in the system and who isn't. While America pays more per
capita for health coverage than other developed nations, we still
perform poorly in major health indicators such as life expectancy,
infant mortality and immunizations rates (Single-Payer National Health Insurance).

Not only is our current system expensive, but it poses
a national security threat and a hazard to public health. As mentioned above, we currently
have about 34 million people who do not get health care, even after the implementation of the ACA.
We are a breeding ground for all kinds of plagues,
diseases and viruses. If you are eating out in public at a restaurant,
you might not want the uninsured cook to cough on your meal and infect
you with the plague. Just some food for thought. If every United States
citizen has access to health care, the chances of a mass epidemic are
diminished.

We also need a national policy of sick leave.

A BRIEF HISTORY

Thirty two of the thirty three developed nations in the world have universal health care (List of Countries with Universal Healthcare).
The United States is the solitary exception. Most of the countries with
universal health coverage have single payer. Even in 1883, Germany had
set up a compulsory sickness insurance program for workers. Most
European countries had some sort of health coverage for as long as the
United States has been trying to get it. The battle for universal
health care has stretched out for nearly a century in the United States.
When other countries started laying the groundwork for universal health
care, the United States government left matters to the states, and the
states left matters to private insurers. Universal health care never
took off in America, partially because of the radical fears of socialism
and communism. Insurance companies and interest groups have also played
a role in blocking universal health care coverage A Brief History: Universal Health Care Efforts in the US.